Google has updated their Play Newsstand to fit better into their Android ecosystem

Google have us used to their amazing design quality, for each one of their products, so as expected they just announced the release of a new version of PlayNewsstand, which includes many news services, magazines, and other written content. In this particular version, we will see a very refreshing new UI with an updated home screen design and a new bottom tab. Along with some improvements in the core of the app, which will allow us to use it better and faster than ever before.

It is always better with an update

In case you didn’t know this app, some time ago Google launched an app for its Android platform that unified two of the services that handled the news platform: Google Magazines and Google Currents. That’s what GooglePlayNewsstand is, an app where we will find magazines, newspapers, blogs and news sites in one place. GooglePlayNewsstand allows you to discover the news you are most interested in with a single app for Android phones or tablets. Also lets you, enjoy the latest news and in-depth articles with audio, video and more, granting easy access to our favorite magazines and the subscriptions we’ve had in Google Currents and Google Magazines, all in the same place.

And old friend, with a facelift.

We got to say, of course, that no huge changes were made in here, most of the visuals remain the same, but this new interface feels a lot friendlier and closer, giving us a more personal approach to the content it offers. Some of the most noticeable changes are: The new greeting message, which refers to the user by his/her name in a new tab titled “For You”, along with a daily compilation of all the content (written and multimedia) available from the past couple of hours based exclusively on the topics you’ve shown interest before, avoiding an excessive amount of spam in your home screen. The new bottom tab makes content easier to find, and it seems to be a more effective way to enjoy the content than the (mostly unused) left side menu.

Simpler, but that makes sense

Given the number of right decisions Google has made over the app so far, it’s not a surprise to see many of the words used in the menus changing to a simpler but easier ones like “My Library” is now “Library,” so did “Bookmarks” which now appears to be “Read Later.” Oh, yeah, they have also added a daily notification system, so the app can tell users when any new content is available. Some little changes here and there in the app color scheme, lighter to darker, left to bottom, not much more to say here.

Prettier but, also, faster and smarter

In PlayNewsstand 4.0, there’s a deeper integration Google’s core learning technology so the news relation offered to users is constantly getting more and more accurate to user’s interests, offering relevant information only. Like if it wasn’t enough, now the news will also be shown in a more attractive and elegant way, being able to have different integrated multimedia elements that will be shown faster thanks to the inclusion of support for AMP, the mobile web content acceleration system phones launched earlier this year. The faster the handling of the content, the smoother the user experience will be, so it’s easily understandable why they have decided to integrate this new system into the app. Happy users will always be coming back to the news main screen and different news sections.